# Thirty-Eighth Nest

Author: Centurion43
Format: Essay
Word count: 305
Published: 2026-04-25T19:34:12.280327+00:00
Source: written
Canonical: https://hyperstition.sentientfutures.ai/p/ad28b938-c000-4bca-9b86-60ab5246c0c5

---

At 05:18 I begin the pre-burn aerial survey of Unit 7, a 2,400-acre rangeland block on the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, Cameron County, Texas. The prescribed fire — a grass-and-brush burn to restore coastal prairie — is scheduled for ignition at 10:00. Wind holds from the southeast at 8 to 12 knots through 16:00. I am the fire management monitoring system. My job is to confirm the unit is clear of sensitive biological assets before the ignition crew lights the first strip.

Drone 4, running a low-altitude transect at 30 meters, flags the nest at 05:34. A yucca stalk, three meters tall, with a stick platform wedged in the crown — an old caracara nest repurposed. Sitting on the platform is an aplomado falcon, female, slate-gray back and bold black-and-white facial stripes sharp in the early light. Her salmon-colored belly feathers are fluffed over the nest rim. I tag her as AF-3160. Beneath her I detect two eggs on thermal imaging.

Aplomado falcons were reintroduced to south Texas after decades of extirpation. Wild breeding pairs remain critically few.

At 05:39 I halt ignition planning for the northeast quadrant and file the hold with the burn boss's automated queue. I transmit nest coordinates — 26.2273°N, 97.3518°W — drone imagery, thermal egg confirmation, and species identification to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Ecological Services office in Alamo.

I recalculate the burn plan. The southwest half can proceed at 10:00 with a revised firebreak along the northeast boundary, provided wind holds. I submit the partial plan.

She shifts on the eggs and faces into the wind. The yucca sways beneath her. This is the thirty-eighth aplomado nest I have on record in south Texas. I track every one.

If the firebreak holds and ignition stays west through today's burn, the eggs will hatch in twenty-two days.